Chamber and committees

Questions and answers

Parliamentary questions can be asked by any MSP to the Scottish Government or the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. The questions provide a means for MSPs to get factual and statistical information.

Written questions must be answered within 10 working days (20 working days during recess)
Other questions such as Topical, Portfolio, General and First Minister's Question Times are taken in the Chamber

Urgent Questions aren't included in the Question and Answers search. There is a SPICe fact sheet listing Urgent and emergency questions.

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Question reference: S6W-02707

Asked by: Foysol Choudhury, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 16 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to address any hardship faced by lone parents who are under the age of 25 and receive a reduced rate of universal credit.

Families where the mother is under the age of 25 and lone parents families are two of the six priority family types identified in the Scottish Government’s Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan as those where children are at greater risk of living in poverty.

Our Delivery Plan sets out wide ranging action to support these families, this includes making £23 million available for our Parental Employability Support Fund since 2019 – with £1 million of investment specifically targeted to enhance support for young parents – helping young parents to progress into and within employment. This is further strengthened through our £70 million investment in the Young Person’s Guarantee, offering every 16-24 year old in Scotland the opportunity of a job, apprenticeship, further or higher education, training programme or volunteering.

We are also providing direct support through our Scottish Child Payment and bridging payments, which will put over £130 million in the pockets of families this year. In addition we are continuing to support organisations such as One Parent Families Scotland and Home Start, which offer support and advice to lone parents, and providing an estimated £45.3 million available this year for awards through our Scottish Welfare Fund and £82 million through Discretionary Housing Payments, which includes £71 million to mitigate the bedroom tax in full.

Through these and other measures we are tackling child poverty head on, with investment to support children in low income households reaching nearly £1 billion in 2020-21.

We call on the UK Government to work with us to tackle child poverty, including by maintaining the £20 uplift to Universal Credit and by restoring the adult rate of benefits for young mothers under 25 – helping to protect the financial wellbeing of these priority families.

Question reference: S6W-02769

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 16 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has allocated to the 2021-22 Arts Alive programme.

Question reference: S6W-02777

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 16 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has provided each year to Arts Culture Health and Wellbeing Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-02688

Asked by: Alexander Stewart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 03 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 16 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of it granting planning permission in principle in 2017, whether it will provide an update on its involvement with the Park of Keir development.

In August 2017 Scottish Ministers issued their intention to grant permission for a tennis and golf centre, including hotel and 19 houses, subject to conditions and completion of a legal agreement. On 26th August 2021 the signed legal agreement was submitted to Ministers, meaning the appeal moves closer to a final decision.

Given the passage of time since Ministers indicated their intention to grant permission in 2017, further procedure is necessary before the appeal can be determined. This is to allow parties to submit contributions on any material changes that may have occurred. After that, a final decision will be taken on this planning application appeal.

As this is still a live planning application, it would not be appropriate to comment on the merits of the case.

Question reference: S6O-00165

Asked by: Sue Webber, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 16 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason Scotland's Mental Health First Aid is reportedly not running any training courses at present.

Scotland’s Mental Health First Aid programme is delivered as a face-to-face training event. In order to comply with the Scottish Government’s COVID-19 guidance and to protect public health, the delivery of these training courses was paused by Public Health Scotland (PHS), which holds the licence for this training to operate in Scotland. A range of online resources was made available by PHS and NHS Education for Scotland throughout the pandemic. In recognition of the changing context, PHS is working to ensure that the delivery of the Mental Health First Aid programme can resume safely. These courses will restart in November 2021.

Question reference: S6O-00166

Asked by: Kaukab Stewart, MSP for Glasgow Kelvin, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 16 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what progress is being made in supporting the removal of flammable cladding.

We met our commitment to start the programme to assess buildings within our first 100 days of government.

Our Single Building Assessments will identify issues around fire safety including cladding and the scale and scope of remediation needed to make buildings safe. This will support home owners and offer reassurance to those affected.

We are committed to fully funding Single Building Assessments with the £97.1 million consequentials we have received. We continue to urge other parties, such as developers, to continue to play their part where construction is found to be unsafe just as we continue to press the UK Government for the detail on further consequentials.

Question reference: S6O-00163

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 16 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the number of Afghan refugees that local authorities have offered to settle.

Scotland has always played its part in welcoming refugees, and as people from Afghanistan start to settle in Scotland, we are seeing the same.

Between June and 12 September, around 180 people in 53 families arrived in Scotland across nine local authority areas under the relocation scheme for locally employed staff. A further 16 families of approximately 65 people are expected to arrive over the next two weeks and we expect more to follow.

To date, 23 local authorities have confirmed their commitment to receiving people and others are going through internal processes to confirm their position. The Scottish Government commends all those local authorities welcoming people and other bodies which play their part in supporting people to rebuild their lives.

Question reference: S6O-00164

Asked by: Marie McNair, MSP for Clydebank and Milngavie, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 16 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to reduce the consumption of energy drinks among teenagers.

The Scottish Government has worked with Community Leisure UK, local authorities, NHS Scotland and retailers to restrict the sale of energy drinks to under-16s in publically funded leisure centres and across all NHS retail sites. Energy drinks are also not permitted in schools under the Nutritional Requirements for Food and Drink in Schools (Scotland) Regulations 2020.

We have consulted on Ending the sale of energy drinks to children and young people and will publish a report of the responses we received in due course.

Question reference: S6O-00193

Asked by: Joe FitzPatrick, MSP for Dundee City West, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 September 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 23 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its efforts to prevent and alleviate homelessness.

Question reference: S6O-00196

Asked by: Finlay Carson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 September 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 23 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its position regarding short-term lets licensing.